Lithuania closes its nuclear power station

Lithuania has closed its only nuclear power station. The Baltic state shut down the last reactor at the Ignalina plant Thursday night.

A long lens view of the Ignalina nuclear power plant in Visaginas,Lithuania on December 18. Lithuania Thursday shut down its Soviet-era nuclear plant under an EU deal in a move set to driveup electricity prices amid an economic crisis and leave it counting n ex-master Moscow for power.(AFP/File/Petras Malukas)

The country closed the nuclear power station at the request of the European Union when it joined the bloc. The EU considered the Soviet-era plant having similar hidden trouble in safety to the one that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986. Lithuania plans to build another nuclear power plant, though not until around 2019.

As a result of the shut down, Lithuanians will now have to pay more for electricity at a time of economy recession. The government says electricity bills for households will rise by one third beginning in 2010. Analysts have said the shutdown could cut gross domestic product growth by up to 1 and a half percentage points, and add one percentage point to inflation.